The present invention relates broadly to an extraction apparatus, and in particular to a low altitude personnel capsule extraction apparatus.
Ever since parachutes have been used in airborne assault, the Army and the Air Force have been plagued by three chronic problems: (1) vulnerability of the airdrop aircraft to ground based small arms fire as it flies 600 to 1,000 feet above the combat drop zone at the relatively slow speed of 130 knots; (2) vulnerability of the paratroops as they exit the aircraft and during a relatively slow descent for 20 to 30 seconds; and (3) dispersion of the paratroops after exiting the aircraft 150 to 200 feet apart, and the resultant loss of control on the drop zone due to this dispersion. Thus, recognizing a need to reduce these risks, both services have been working on several airdrop systems since the early 1960s.
Of these systems, the low-altitude parachute extraction system (LAPES), has been widely used since 1970 for cargo aerial deliveries. Another system, the ground-proximity extraction system (GPES), which utilizes ground-based arrester cables as a means of deceleration, was tested with a personnel capsule, but has only been used as a last resort for arresting aircraft when their primary braking systems have failed. However, the LAPES was never mated with the personnel capsule. There were two good reasons why this was never done: (1) The LAPES hardware and rigging procedures were still being developed at the time of the GPES testing, and (2) the results from the concurrent GPES testing showed objectionably high impact g-forces on the instrumented capsule and anthropomorphic dummies inside.
Currently the Army is looking for ways to land airborne troops so as to reduce the time they are vulnerable to enemy small arms fire. The present invention is intended to satisfy that need. By coming in at tree top level, a C-130 aircraft would avoid most of the ground-to-air fire. In addition, the use of a personnel capsule to carry troops substantially reduces the risk of them becoming targets for small arms fire from the ground, since the personnel are never descending by parachute. A secondary advantage over normal airborne airdrops from 600-1000 feet is that a personnel capsule will hold 12 to 24 men, thus when they land they are already formed in squads with ammo available immediately, and thus ready to fight a squad-sized unit, rather than being dispersed as in normal personnel airdrops over an area of several acres. This invention is also feasible for use in amphibious operations by rigging boats onto the LAPES airdrop platforms which would be extracted 5 to 10 feet above the water, from C-130 type aircraft, similar to the extraction on land.